Gender Balance in Mars Exploration: Lessons Learned from the Mars Science Laboratory

María Paz Zorzano

doi:10.3390/su122410658

Gender Balance in Mars Exploration: Lessons Learned from the Mars Science Laboratory

María Paz Zorzano^* (Corresponding Author)

^*Corresponding author for this work

Planetary Sciences, Geography

CSIC-INTA - Astrobiology Center

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

13 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

There is, recently, a global concern about the gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) areas, starting from education role models, student applications, through the academic, industrial and management career progression. Given the high visibility and popularity of all subjects related to space exploration, female participation in this field may be used to change the existing stereotypes and provide role models to the younger generations, thus having a positive influence on education while also demonstrating to other organizations how to promote diversity in the working environment. Previous studies on spacecraft science teams, considering only principal and co-Investigators, PIs and co-investigators (CoIs), respectively, show that the percentage of women in the role of investigators has remained flat at 15.8% since 2000. The NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission is taken here as an example to perform a statistical analysis of the gender profile for the period 2004–2018. The results are compared with: (1) data from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) about gender distribution in STEM postdoctoral profiles and faculty members; (2) the trend of planetary exploration team profiles; (3) research and innovation statistics in Europe; (4) proposals of the EU FP6 funding program; and (5) the percentage of female researchers from the Elsevier status report. This analysis shows that the process of continually holding open calls for Participating Scientists based on individual merit and the application of a flat working structure have allowed gender balance within the MSL team to improve naturally while maximizing individual and team performance. Women represent approximately 30.6% of the team, in agreement with the current percentage of female planetary exploration researchers and senior faculty members in academia. Interestingly, the percentage of female-led articles has been above the MSL women percentage trend. While the percentage of women in planetary science appears to be increasing, their role on the proposing teams is still low. As in other STEM fields, attention should be paid to secure the adequate promotion of younger generations to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 5 of achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls by 2030.

Original language	English
Article number	10658
Number of pages	11
Journal	Sustainability (Switzerland)
Volume	12
Issue number	24
Early online date	20 Dec 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410658
Publication status	Published - 20 Dec 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Funding: The author has been partially funded by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) Project No. MDM-2017-0737 Unidad de Excelencia “María de Maeztu”-Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA).

Data Availability Statement

The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/24/10658/s1, Table S1: Female postdoctoral appointees in science, engineering and health (ALL) in all institutions (ALL) or in Academic institutions (Uni), in postdoctoral appointees in EPG (Engineering, Earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences and Physical sciences) and Women as a percentage of science and engineering doctorate holders employed in academia, by position: Selected years, 1973–2015, Table S2: Proportion and number of researchers by gender within the EU, the US and Canada (among named and gendered author profiles) for each comparator and subject area, 1996–2000 vs. 2011–2015, Table S3: Women as a percentage of Science and Engineering doctorate holders employed in academia, by position: Selected years, Table S4: MSL refereed publications per year and female-led papers per year. If the gender of the first author is not indicated in articles, it was inferred from their professional web pages (where they existed) and the gender of their first name.

Keywords

Gender balance
Mars science laboratory
Solar system exploration
Sustainable goals

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.3390/su122410658Licence: CC BY

Paz_sustainability_Gender_balance_VOR
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Final published version, 908 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{b4170aa7c6e14b1c94522df2b85f8641,

title = "Gender Balance in Mars Exploration: Lessons Learned from the Mars Science Laboratory",

abstract = "There is, recently, a global concern about the gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) areas, starting from education role models, student applications, through the academic, industrial and management career progression. Given the high visibility and popularity of all subjects related to space exploration, female participation in this field may be used to change the existing stereotypes and provide role models to the younger generations, thus having a positive influence on education while also demonstrating to other organizations how to promote diversity in the working environment. Previous studies on spacecraft science teams, considering only principal and co-Investigators, PIs and co-investigators (CoIs), respectively, show that the percentage of women in the role of investigators has remained flat at 15.8% since 2000. The NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission is taken here as an example to perform a statistical analysis of the gender profile for the period 2004–2018. The results are compared with: (1) data from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) about gender distribution in STEM postdoctoral profiles and faculty members; (2) the trend of planetary exploration team profiles; (3) research and innovation statistics in Europe; (4) proposals of the EU FP6 funding program; and (5) the percentage of female researchers from the Elsevier status report. This analysis shows that the process of continually holding open calls for Participating Scientists based on individual merit and the application of a flat working structure have allowed gender balance within the MSL team to improve naturally while maximizing individual and team performance. Women represent approximately 30.6% of the team, in agreement with the current percentage of female planetary exploration researchers and senior faculty members in academia. Interestingly, the percentage of female-led articles has been above the MSL women percentage trend. While the percentage of women in planetary science appears to be increasing, their role on the proposing teams is still low. As in other STEM fields, attention should be paid to secure the adequate promotion of younger generations to achieve the United Nation{\textquoteright}s Sustainable Development Goal 5 of achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls by 2030.",

keywords = "Gender balance, Mars science laboratory, Solar system exploration, Sustainable goals",

author = "Zorzano, {Mar{\'i}a Paz}",

note = "Funding Information: Funding: The author has been partially funded by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) Project No. MDM-2017-0737 Unidad de Excelencia “Mar{\'i}a de Maeztu”-Centro de Astrobiolog{\'i}a (CSIC-INTA).",

year = "2020",

month = dec,

day = "20",

doi = "10.3390/su122410658",

language = "English",

volume = "12",

journal = "Sustainability (Switzerland)",

issn = "2071-1050",

publisher = "MDPI",

number = "24",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Gender Balance in Mars Exploration

T2 - Lessons Learned from the Mars Science Laboratory

AU - Zorzano, María Paz

N1 - Funding Information: Funding: The author has been partially funded by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) Project No. MDM-2017-0737 Unidad de Excelencia “María de Maeztu”-Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA).

PY - 2020/12/20

Y1 - 2020/12/20

N2 - There is, recently, a global concern about the gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) areas, starting from education role models, student applications, through the academic, industrial and management career progression. Given the high visibility and popularity of all subjects related to space exploration, female participation in this field may be used to change the existing stereotypes and provide role models to the younger generations, thus having a positive influence on education while also demonstrating to other organizations how to promote diversity in the working environment. Previous studies on spacecraft science teams, considering only principal and co-Investigators, PIs and co-investigators (CoIs), respectively, show that the percentage of women in the role of investigators has remained flat at 15.8% since 2000. The NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission is taken here as an example to perform a statistical analysis of the gender profile for the period 2004–2018. The results are compared with: (1) data from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) about gender distribution in STEM postdoctoral profiles and faculty members; (2) the trend of planetary exploration team profiles; (3) research and innovation statistics in Europe; (4) proposals of the EU FP6 funding program; and (5) the percentage of female researchers from the Elsevier status report. This analysis shows that the process of continually holding open calls for Participating Scientists based on individual merit and the application of a flat working structure have allowed gender balance within the MSL team to improve naturally while maximizing individual and team performance. Women represent approximately 30.6% of the team, in agreement with the current percentage of female planetary exploration researchers and senior faculty members in academia. Interestingly, the percentage of female-led articles has been above the MSL women percentage trend. While the percentage of women in planetary science appears to be increasing, their role on the proposing teams is still low. As in other STEM fields, attention should be paid to secure the adequate promotion of younger generations to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 5 of achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls by 2030.

AB - There is, recently, a global concern about the gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) areas, starting from education role models, student applications, through the academic, industrial and management career progression. Given the high visibility and popularity of all subjects related to space exploration, female participation in this field may be used to change the existing stereotypes and provide role models to the younger generations, thus having a positive influence on education while also demonstrating to other organizations how to promote diversity in the working environment. Previous studies on spacecraft science teams, considering only principal and co-Investigators, PIs and co-investigators (CoIs), respectively, show that the percentage of women in the role of investigators has remained flat at 15.8% since 2000. The NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission is taken here as an example to perform a statistical analysis of the gender profile for the period 2004–2018. The results are compared with: (1) data from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) about gender distribution in STEM postdoctoral profiles and faculty members; (2) the trend of planetary exploration team profiles; (3) research and innovation statistics in Europe; (4) proposals of the EU FP6 funding program; and (5) the percentage of female researchers from the Elsevier status report. This analysis shows that the process of continually holding open calls for Participating Scientists based on individual merit and the application of a flat working structure have allowed gender balance within the MSL team to improve naturally while maximizing individual and team performance. Women represent approximately 30.6% of the team, in agreement with the current percentage of female planetary exploration researchers and senior faculty members in academia. Interestingly, the percentage of female-led articles has been above the MSL women percentage trend. While the percentage of women in planetary science appears to be increasing, their role on the proposing teams is still low. As in other STEM fields, attention should be paid to secure the adequate promotion of younger generations to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 5 of achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls by 2030.

KW - Gender balance

KW - Mars science laboratory

KW - Solar system exploration

KW - Sustainable goals

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85098196578&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/su122410658

DO - 10.3390/su122410658

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85098196578

SN - 2071-1050

VL - 12

JO - Sustainability (Switzerland)

JF - Sustainability (Switzerland)

IS - 24

M1 - 10658

ER -

Gender Balance in Mars Exploration: Lessons Learned from the Mars Science Laboratory

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this